I went to Carmine to buy and windmill and I brought home a tractor!

How is that for a title? It is entirely true and it pretty much sums up a goodly portion of what we did this weekend. Sally met a really nice fellow at an estate sale a couple of weeks ago. He told her he was going to get an old windmill and he wanted to sell it. Since this is exactly what Sally wants, we went to see it this Saturday. Turns out, it was not the right one for us. Too expensive, too much work and too many missing and/or damaged parts. He was a nice man though and he had a cute home and a great workshop and he loved to piddle. He is a square and round dancer and he asked Sally and I to join his group. We are definately thinking about it. Anyway, after looking at the windmill we decided to go to the steak house in Carmine. On the way, we passed a mechanic shop that had a little red Farmall Cub outside it. Sally suggested we stop and ask if it was for sell. Well, it was! We went right down the street to talk to the owner. Very interesting man. 6' 8" retired basketball coach that owns a VERY cool antique shop and his very own basketball museum. That's right, he owns his on museum. Anyway, he told us what he wanted for the tractor. I mentioned that we had been in the antique business ourselves and we had some cool things that he should come look at. He took me up on it. He and his wife came buy and agreed to take our giant shelves and a fishing calendar and a little money. Viola! We now own a 1948 Farmall Cub!

How do you top a story like that? Well, at our house you work! Last week, Sally and I removed the carpet that was in the living room. The floors needed refinishing so that's what we did. We stayed up until 1:00 Friday night sanding. Then more sanding Saturday. After all of that sanding we had a HUGE MESS to clean up. That took a while and we were so nasty after doing it. We also found time to make the first set of shutters for the house. They look AWESOME! We also cleaned a huge rug, scraped windows and refinished the porch swing. AND ... we finally settled on a paint color for the inside. Kind of greeny-gold. We are also going to do the white on the beaded board in a muted off white. What weekend! We are so tired and sore today but we are excited. Everything we did this weekend really looked great and it all made the house look great. We are inspired again!

Heather's Wedding

I feel horrible. My daughter got married two weeks ago and I am just now getting around to blogging it. Shows how crazy things have been around the Whitehouse. Oh well, let's talk wedding! IT WAS AWESOME!!!! No mess ups or problems of any sort. It was hot, but hey, it was an outdoor wedding in Texas. I think about 200 showed up. Thanks to all who braved the heat for us. After the ceremony evidently about 80 left as the caterer said they only served around 120. Well, it was definately their loss! The food was awesome and the after party was more awesome. The DJ said that it was the best dancing crowd they had ever seen. The wedding site was beautiful. Here is a run down of some of the highlights by person:

Heather-BEAUTIFUL bride that remained calm cool and collected. DID NOT become a bridezilla. She glowed and truly enjoyed and embraced the entire ceremony. Made me cry before the ceremony by giving me a card and a pic of us playing wedding when she ws about two.

Jared-Consumate groom. No visible stress. Helped with the manual labor of getting the site ready. He had such a good time and he really looked happy to be taking the most sacred vow on earth with my daughter

Whitney-MOST EXCELLENT FLORIST. Whitney did such a great job on all of the arrangements and the decorating of the site. She was pretty in pink and she beamed! Big night for her as well

Chris-What a great ceremony. Reverend Rue rose to the occasion and he helped make the wedding very personal. I am so happy he was able to do the vows.

Rue children-Jessie was the best bride's maid ever. Chris did the wedding. Katie and Moose really chipped in and made things happen. Again, family coming together to make this awesome event happen. I am really glad that I am related to these people!

Sally- She was beautiful! I love her so much and weddings remind me why!

Petters-The entire Petter clan was awesome. They helped with everything from the manual labor to the paying part. The wedding simply would not have been as nice with out their help. The Petter brothers were awesome best men. I really enjoyed watching the whole Petter family work and celebrate together. I am so glad we are kind of related to them now.

Other friends and family-To all of those that helped, Thanks! This was a big event and so many of you did so much to make it happen. Thanks again.

Happy Birthday America!

What an incredible 4th of July weekend we had! First, we did something that I never thought I would do. We picked 5 gallons wild mustang (or Muscadine) grapes for us to use to make wine. This was a lot of fun and we really are excited about trying our hand a wine making. Once we got them home we washed them and removed the stems. Next we mashed them with an old baseball bat. We now have the pulp and juice in our living room going through the fermentation process. Once it gets a white mold on top of it, we are going to take it to Beth Kunkle's dad. He is the local wine maker and his wine is good! We are very excited about learning to become amatuer vinters.

Saturday took us to Houston to celebrate Heather's last birthday as a single woman. She prepared fish tacos for us and a lovely avacado dip. OMG! They were awesome! Sally also made a yummy dessert out of our tatume squash. It was awesome! Heather is quite the cook. She is going to make a good little house wife for Jared! After lunch we all went to Sam's and bought Heather a camera for her birthday. After Sam's we went to see Herb and PK. Herb had recieved a bunch of old pictures from his sister. We really had a good time looking at them with him. Also, Jessica was still there. She had to stay over the night because the flooding was so bad from hurricane Alex. After we left the forum we went by Kim's to get stuff for Heather's wedding. We stayed for a couple of hours. Really had a lovely visit.

For the fourth, Sally and I decided to go to the Round Top parade. This is the oldest continuously celebrated 4th of July celebration in the nation west of the Mississippi. This was the 160th celebration. That means that people have been celebrating in Round Top since 1850. That is incredible to me. People have been getting together in that little town to celebrate our nation's independence since 5 years after Texas became a state. The parade was really fun. Too many pics to post here but we saw the governor, lots of beauty queens, amusing floats and a bunch of kids riding longhorn steers. I got my picture made with Governor Rick Perry! We left Round Top and went to Sonic for Hot Dogs. We also went to HEB and got the stuff to treat my POISON IVY. Evidently I paid a heavy price for the grapes we picked. To finish off the evening we went to Washington on the Brazos (the birthplace of Texas) and watched the HEB sponsored fireworks. The fireworks were good but the music on the radio was terrible. In spite of the music it was a perfect end to an almost perfect day.

Happy Father's Day

Major props for probably my best Father's Day ever. Gran and Jessie (and Sassie and Josh) came to visit. We had a great time. Before they arrived, Sally took me in her arms and said the most romantic thing she has ever said to me. She said "Since it is Father's day we should do something you REALLY want to do. Let's take down the dining room wall!!!" Is there any doubt as to why I love this woman. So, Saturday morning I got Jessie up early and we harvested the garden. She got to pull the first watermelon (more on that later). Then, we went to work! Jessie had such a good time tearing down the wall. She and Sally were great carpenter's helpers. I was was so proud of how hard they worked and so excited to get this project on its way to complete. As a reward, we took Gran and Jessie to see "On Golden Pond" at the Unity Theater.

Sunday was very laid back. I worked on finishing up some loose ends on the wall project. Sally and Jessie got lunch ready for the grill. Sally also finished MAKING PLUM JELLY from the plums off of our tree. I grilled hamburgers, tatume' and corn. Jessie gave me a gift certificat to Lowe's. So she was fully invested in the wall project. She provided capital and labor, thank you very much! Sally gave me an oscillating sprinkler on a stand. This is awesome. It makes it so much easier and better to water the garden. After a fabulous lunch, Sally told me to close my eyes for another surprise. She stuck something very sweet into mouth mouth. It was our watermelon. But that wasn't the surprise. The surprise was the color of the watermelon. It was yellow and it was awesome! What a wonderful way to end a very wonderful weekend.

Going Green With God

Last weekend started with dinner and a show. Sally and I went to see "On Golden Pond" at the Unity Theater in Brenham (http://www.unitybrenham.org/). For me, this was the most enjoyable production we have seen. Dinner was also very enjoyable. We actually meet two couples that are our approximate age!

Saturday morning found us on our way to Waco. We met Heather and Lucy Petter at Ruby Caroline (http://rubycaroline.net/) to observe a wedding that was being set up. this was to prepare us for the set up of Heather and Jared's upcoming nuptials. It was very lovely and I thoroughly the trip. After that, we went to Sam's and bought the non-alcoholic drinks, plate, napkins, cups, etc for the big day. After that we headed back to Gran's where we met up with Whitney and Kristen Schuetz. Gran fixed a lovely dinner. Megan, John and their kids showed up. We all had a lovely time. After that we ran over to the Litteral's for drinks with Andy, Tracie, Gary and BeBe. Shaun and Katie Jo were in. She is so pregnant! We had a great visit.

Sunday found us at St. Louis for Father David's last mass. It was kind of sad. He is really the only priest I have ever known. Sad as it was, it was very good to see all of our old friends. You don't realize how important some things are until they are gone. We really do miss the community that we had in Waco. After mass we ate with the girls. They gave me a lovely garden book for Father's Day. After lunch we headed back to Brenham so Sally could start Vacation Bible School. This year's theme is "Going Green With God". She is helping for the whole week. She talked me into giving a talk about composting. It went well and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. After the talk I visited with Father Ivey. He is a very interesting man. His under grad is in Horticulture from A&M! Whoop!

Memorial Day Weekend

What a wonderful and busy Memorial day weekend! It started with my first horticultural article being published on HortUpdate (http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/hortupdate/2010/may/potager.html). This was a very exciting event for me. I was at A&M when it happened and everyone there was so complimentary. Sally was truly over joyed as well. I am very happy about this and I look at it as the first step down the road to my next career. After work, I went home and Sally and I mowed and edged our property. It was hard work but the house and yard are really beginning to look very nice.

The weekend really started on Saturday. All of Sally's siblings came to our house for breakfast and a discussion on where to bury MiMi. It went well and everyone had a lovely time. Kim and Mike both suggested hosting these get togethers more frequently. Everyone liked the changes we are making to the house and they loved the garden. Before the got there I picked 26 pounds of beans, squash and tomatos. They all took food home. After they left Sally and I went to the dump and got a load of mulch. We mulched our beds. That really made a diffence. Everything looks so nice. After that we went to mass and then just chilled on the porch.

Sunday was the annual "100 Days of Summer" festival at our church. We worked the "Trash to Tresure" booth. Sally was awesome! She worked so hard and sold so much junk that I was truly impressed. After it was over we were beat. We went home and crashed for an hour or so and then we started grilling. We cooked corn, hamburgers and calabacita squash. We washed our meal down with Diet Cokes with a splash of lime. Very refreshing. The whole meal was awesome, but the squash gets some extra praise. I will definately be growing this squash variety again.

Monday found us in the row graden by 7:00. We built the beds for our purple hulls and okra. We also finished mulching the potatos and we laid down the soaker hoses and newspapers between the rows for weed control. We also worked on cleaning up the mess behing the cedar fence. After this we showered and ate wonderful leftovers. We then took a holiday nap. Once we got up we went to DQ for a sundae. After that we rode around in the country for about an hour. Then we hit the yard again. We planted the plants Sally bought for me as a present for getting published. We also planted all of the plants that we got at the palnt booth at the church picnic. All in all it was a lovely, lovely, long weekend.

May was a blur!

May has flown by!!! I have been so busy at work that I have not had time to blog. This should tell you how busy I am as I really do enjoying blogging. Lots of big things have happened this month so I will try and catch up on them in this one big post.

Julie Heman's wedding - Lovely wedding. Fun had by all. Very interesting ceremony. Julie had two male bride's maids. Not sure what you call them - attendants? Anyway, it was lovely. Julie looked lovely, all of her brother's participated. They all did great but I would like to give special props to Kevin. He did so well with the reading. He also did an excellent approach to the alter. Reverant, with a bow to the eucharist. Very proper! Way to go Kev. St. Thomas taught you well. The reception was awesome. Thanks Buddy and Kim for a fabulous party. Also, thanks to the Liu family for adding their cultural traditions as well. Everyone LOVED the dragon dance. I wish the bride and groom much success and happiness in the future!

Heather's Grad School Graduation Round 2 - Who is beautiful, talented, accomplished,EDUCATED and DEBT FREE all before age 24? Heather, that's whooooo! We all traveled to Denton (except Sally, see next comment) to watch Heather accept her second master's degree. Of course the weather was horrible but it did not rain on the day (pun intended). After the graduation, Gran and I met the graduate, Jared, Whitney and Debbie and Sal for a very lovely dinner. All in all it was a great day and a great celebration.

Bob Rue died - After 83 years, Bob Rue finally found peace. The last couple of years had been hard for him. Chris did such an amazing job standing by his grandfather. I am so proud of him for standing up and doing something very hard that he did not have to do. Chris, I am proud of you and I admire the way you handled a very tough situation for such a long time. Since his memorial was the same night as Heather's graduation, Sally went to San Marcos to be with her kids as they said good bye to their grand father. By all accounts it was a lovely service. Katie and Moose kicked in and helped Chris put together a lovely and fitting farewell to a man who had been a huge part of their lives for the past few years. Thank you to all of you for doing what needed to be done. I am proud of all of you.

THE HOUSE IS PAINTED!!!! - After four months of hard work, set backs and frustrations, the house is finally painted! I cannot overstate what a big deal this is for me! I still have touch ups, the old deck and window scrapping to go, but it is such a relief to have the whole house one color (and it is a color I like).

The garden is coming in - Again, I have been so busy that I was actually surprised by this. I had been watering and I knew the things were growing, but the other day we went into the garden and BAM! Vegetables everywhere! The tatume squash is awesome. Huge vines and tons of squash. Also tons of tomatos and beans. We are going to have watermelons this year! The purple peppers are great as is the eggplant. We have been eating out the garden for about three days now.